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Book of the Week: Born Liars: Why We Can't Live Without Deceit

Book of the Week: Born Liars: Why We Can't Live Without Deceit: Episode 2

Factual: History

Factual: Science & Nature

Born Liars: Why We Can't Live Without Deceit

Episode 2

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Born Liars: Why We Can't Live Without Deceit, Episode 2

Children can be scaringly good at lying, but when and how do they learn?

Children can be scaringly good at lying, but when and how do they learn? Tim McInnerny continues Ian Leslie's book.

Children learn deceit very early in their lives, but they are not very good at it. Then, at roughly between the ages of three and a half and four and a half, something changes. Ian Leslie explains how children's deceit becomes more sophisticated and the social processes that change (or sometimes not) their behaviour for the better.

Ian Leslie was born in 1972 and lives in London. He combines careers in advertising and writing. His first book, To be President (Politicos, 2008), an account of the 2008 US presidential election, was described by Adam Boulton as 'brilliantly capturing the drama and emotion of Obama's successful run for the White House' and was extracted by Granta. He regularly appears as an analyst of American politics on Sky and the BBC. He has written about politics, culture, marketing and psychology for Prospect, the Guardian, the Times and the BBC. He also blogs about all these things at Marbury, named one of the fifty 'Most Powerful' blogs in the world by the Observer. 

'Consistently startling and fascinating. Most popular psychology books follow a depressingly familiar path: there's some dodgy theorising at the beginning, then a raft of dubious statistics with a few anecdotes to back them up. Born Liars, however, is in quite a different league. It's erudite yet wears its learning lightly and is full of terrific stories. It will also make you see yourself, and the world around you, in a new light.' - 'Book of the Week', Daily Mail


Written by Ian Leslie
Abridged by Pete Nichols

Reader: Tim McInnerny

Producer: Rosalynd Ward 
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.

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Ian Leslie explores deception, and the role it has played in human evolution

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